Accurate Steering system modeling for Vehicle Handling and Steering performance prediction using CAE

The car industry strives to develop high-quality vehicles quickly that fulfill the buyer's needs and stand out within the competition. Full utilization of simulation and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) tools can empower quick assessment of different vehicle concepts and setups without building physical models. Vehicle execution assessment is critical in the vehicle development process, requiring exact vehicle steering system models. The effect of steering system stiffness is vital for vehicle handling, stability, and steering performance studies. The overall steering stiffness are usually not modeled accurately. Usually torsion bar stiffness alone is considered in modeling. The modeling of overall steering stiffness along with torsion bar stiffness is studied in this paper. Another major contributing factor for steering performance is steering friction. The steering friction is also often not considered properly. This paper present the modeling of steering stiffness and friction accurately using CAE models. The vehicle is modeling in ADAMS/Car and the effect of with and without steering stiffness and friction are studied on steering and handling performance. The study has shown that accurate modeling of steering stiffness and friction has considerable impact on CAE prediction. The test data comparison is done to validate the impact of modeling steering stiffness and friction accuracy using CAE models.